Beacon of Hope
by Yugismpuzzle
Summary: One Shot. Based on a TRUE STORY. Hitomi is trying desperatly to keep her loved ones together. Weeks pass by without any contact. Just when Hitomi starts to lose hope of ever being with her loved ones again, a becon appears, reestablishing her hope! RR!


**AN****: Hi, it's me again. Here is a short little one shot that I just had to get out of my system. Well, actually, this is a true story. Of course, I'll be changing the point of view to third person and the events will be happening to Hitomi, cause, well, let's face it, you'd rather hear what happened to Hitomi. I'm changing the names of the actual people because…well, you don't know them so I better put in people you do know. **

**The rest of the explanation will come after the story, so, read and I hope you like it!**

**Disclaimer_: _****I do not own the Escaflowne characters, but this story is all MINE. I MADE IT UP. IT HAPPENED TO ME, SO, HA, I FINALLY OWN SOMETHING AND I HAVE WITNESSES TO PROVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!**

**_The Miracle of the Hummingbird_**

_'It's too early for this…'_

Hitomi Kanzaki thought as she dodged in and out of the oncoming crowd, trying to make it to her next class. First and second period seemed to go on for hours until finally; the bell rang, rescuing the poor students from another lecture about things they'll forget in five minutes, if they haven't already forgotten. Hitomi managed to clear free of the crowd and was now shuffling her feet towards her Chemistry class. She was still half asleep from the History lecture she had just heard. Actually, it wasn't that bad of a subject. Her teacher was very clever and he had a way of grasping the kid's attentions. Her first period, American Literature was incredibly boring and Hitomi actually did fall asleep, but only for a minute. But the class itself wasn't why she was tired.

She was tired because she couldn't sleep the night before. In fact, it had been many weeks since she last received a good eight hours of rest…

_'Mamorou's been gone for…what, ten months. And still, he hasn't contacted me. Where is he?'_

Mr. and Mrs. Kanzaki separated after many months of struggling to keep their family together. Mamorou left to live with Mr. Kanzaki and his new wife Yuka, while Hitomi stayed in her old house, living with Ms. Kanzaki. With all the contention flying around between the two halves, neither side had contacted the other. At first, Hitomi thought her father only needed a cooling down period and that he would call when he was ready. But weeks passed, and no such call was made. Hitomi decided to take the first step, desperate to find out what was going on with her family. She called on her father's birthday. He sounded so happy to hear from his daughter.

_"Dad, how about you and Mamorou come down for the weekend next week. Just the two of you."_

_"Um, that sounds like a good idea, but I'll have to run it past Yuka first. I'll call you on Sunday to let you know."_

_"Alright, promise?"_

_"I promise…"_

He had promised. Sunday came and went, but no call had come. That was the last she had heard from him and her brother…

Hitomi walked out of the shadow of the school building and came into the light, allowing her sweater to soak in the sun's rays. This one moment of warmth was a part of the day Hitomi always looked forward too. It was the first strong rays of the sun for each day, and Hitomi always made sure she caught them fresh each morning. Now, she was awake.

With a little more bounce in her step, Hitomi walked into her Chemistry class, waving a hello to her teacher Ms. Williams before moving to the back of the classroom to sit in her assigned seat. Hitomi really liked Ms. Williams. She was a fun teacher and had a wonderful sense of humor. She could also easily identify with students, which made her really easy to talk to. Hitomi's seat was secluded from the rest of the class. While her fellow classmates sat at double desks, Hitomi sat at the lab counter in the back of the room. Hitomi didn't mind. She liked being in the back with no one around her. That way she wouldn't have to worry about anyone trying to copy her answers while taking a test.

Hitomi placed her backpack on the counter and pulled out her binder. She sat it down, looked at the front of her binder and smiled. All over the binder were pictures of her family, so she would never forget what they looked like. Her mom, dad, step mother, half baby sister from her father's new marriage, and Mamorou, the one person she missed the most…

The day her father moved out, Hitomi gave one last hug to her little brother. Somehow, it felt like it would be her last. At the time, she told herself she was being stupid and that she was going to see her brother in two weeks. Still, she couldn't overcome the feeling of separation that was growing within her.

Mamorou whispered in his sister's ear. _"I don't want to go."_

Hitomi wanted to cry, but she couldn't. _"You have to go. We don't have a choice. But we'll see each other in two weeks okay?"_

_"Yeah, okay."_

_"Don't forget to contact me."_

_"I won't."_

_"I love you, li'll bro."_

_"I love you too."_

But he must have forgotten all about Hitomi because he didn't stay in contact for very long. E-mails passed between them frequently at first, then once a week, then perhaps once a month, and then they stopped altogether. It practically drove Hitomi insane. No matter what she did, her brother wouldn't talk to her. Eventually, the idea occurred to her that Mamorou's e-mail address was erased, so, she tried sending letters in the mail, but instead, Hitomi received a message from one of Mamorou's friends to stop sending letters and that the letters were only getting him into trouble with their step-mother. Apparently, she didn't like the idea of Mamorou and Hitomi keeping in touch.

Hitomi wanted to scream. Months passed, and still there was no word from Mamorou. This had never happened to her before. She had no idea why he wouldn't try to contact her. He could do it secretly. Send an e-mail at school. Or write a letter and ask a friend to mail it for him. Or call from a pay phone to say "Hi, I'm still alive." There were so many ways but he wouldn't even use one of them.

At first Hitomi thought, _'Is he mad at me? Did I do something wrong? What did I do?' _

Then, her thoughts turned into, _'Is something wrong that he's afraid to contact me? Did something happen?'_

Similar thoughts plagued her mind every night, when the house was too quiet and allowed too much time for thinking. That's why she couldn't sleep. She was worried about her little brother.

Of course, there was always the possibility that Mamorou was perfectly fine and that he had merely forgotten to talk to Hitomi. He could be perfectly happy with his new life and feel no need to seek comfort in his older sister. If that were the case, all he would have to do was to tell that to Hitomi and she would have been relieved. She would be able to sleep at night, knowing her little brother was safe and happy. If he felt that he could move on, then Hitomi was happy for him.

But the problem was that she _didn't _know. And until she knew for sure, the sleepless nights would continue her nightmares would never end.

…That's why she sent the last letter.

One _last_ e-mail.

Hitomi knew the address still existed. She sent the letter several weeks ago and she was still waiting for a response. Butterflies hatched in her stomach every time she checked her e-mail and stones would replace them when it would read: You have 0 messages...

Hitomi was brought out of her reminiscing when a dark ball of movement at the corner of her eye caught her attention. High in the corner of the slanted ceiling in her Chemistry classroom was a window with the shades blocking out the sunlight. Zooming around in circles and stopping to land on the shades was a hummingbird.

Hitomi gasped. _'Awww…the poor thing is stuck inside the classroom.'_

Hitomi got off of her seat and walked over to her teacher's desk. Ms. Williams was looking for a stack of worksheets she would be using for the lesson that day.

"Um, Ms. Williams."

"Yes."

"Did you know that there was a hummingbird in your…"

Ms. Williams sighed in irritation before Hitomi could finish. "Yes, I know about the stupid hummingbird. It was here when I came in this morning. The stupid thing must have got stuck in here yesterday somehow. The problem is that nobody in first or second period will pay attention to me. They just keep looking at that stupid bird. I haven't been able to get anything done and I doubt that this class will be any different."

Hitomi smiled and walked back to her seat. Yes, Ms. Williams was annoyed that she couldn't teach her lesson but Hitomi could tell that her teacher also thought the idea of a hummingbird trapped in her classroom was funny.

The bell rang and all the students rushed to their seats. Well, most of the students. Dilandau walked in only a minute after the bell rang, casually sitting down in his seat. The idea of him being marked tardy was no where near his mind. But before Dilandau came in, Hitomi could already hear whispers floating around the classroom.

"Hey, there's a hummingbird in the classroom."

"Where?"

"Up there"

Many people's heads turned up and fingers pointed at the hummingbird as it zoomed around in a circle, found nowhere to go, and return to its perch on the window shades.

"Hey, Ms. Williams, did you know that there's a hummingbird in here?" asked Allen.

"I know that there's a hummingbird, but you know what? It's still school so you all can either pay attention or you can look at the stupid bird and miss the lesson. I don't care, as long as you do it quietly."

And that is where Ms. Williams started her lesson. But hardly anyone actually listened. Most of the heads in the classroom were turned upward toward the twenty foot, severely slanted ceiling where the humming bird continued to fly around, panicking, trying to find a way out. The circle in which it flew only covered a few feet. Apparently, it was too afraid to fly any closer to the suspended ceiling fans. Suddenly, Merle shouted the same thing that Hitomi had been thinking.

"Hey, someone should turn off the fans."

Milerna leapt up, ran to the wall and flipped the switch off. Ms. Williams looked a little annoyed, but she put her lesson on hold as the kids tried to work out a way to help the bird get out. The students opened the two entrance doors to the room and opened all the windows. Unfortunately, the windows only opened out from the bottom instead of strait up, so, the hummingbird would have to first find the window, then, fly down and out of it. Ms. Williams also contributed to the effort by pouring some of her fruit punch into some small beakers and setting them on top of bookshelves and cabinets.

All awhile, the hummingbird flew in its small circle, hovered seemingly motionless for an instant, then zoomed back to the window. It was clearly exhausted. At times, the hummingbird couldn't make it to the window. It would hover just below its perch, panic for a moment, then use a burst of energy to move upward only an inch, then collapse onto the window. It was so tired; it didn't even have the strength to fold in its wings.

Hitomi looked up at it sympathetically. _'Poor thing. It's so tired.'_

After a few minutes, the ceiling fans stopped spinning, yet the tiny bird continued to make its same rounds. Hitomi couldn't bear to watch the bird exhaust itself, so, she turned her attention back to the lesson, which had been resumed. She copied down the new notes that appeared on the slide of the teacher's power point presentation. Today's lesson was an easy one, and Hitomi knew it by heart, so she only paid enough attention to know when it was time to copy down more notes.

The rest of the time, she let her mind wander. She allowed herself to fanaticize about the hummingbird. She imagined the hummingbird coming close enough to her for her to catch it. She imagined boxing it into her hands, walking outside and setting it free. Then, she imagined coming back into the classroom with everyone clapping and cheering for her. Hitomi smiled at her own childish thoughts, knowing full well that the odds of that happening for real were about one in a zillion.

_'It would take a miracle.'_

Suddenly, the entire classroom gasped. The teacher stopped talking and Hitomi's attention was back on the little bird. Apparently, since the fans were off, the bird felt a little braver and began widening its search for an exit. It came close to one of the fans, bumped slightly against the blades, and flew back to its corner.

"Awww man!" the entire class moaned together. "That stupid bird!!!"

Loudest of all was the boy sitting on the opposite side of the counter to the right of Hitomi, Van Fanel. He too was grumbling at the bird.

"If that thing comes anywhere near me, I'll snatch it and toss it outside."

Hitomi grinned a little. Apparently, she wasn't the only one imagining what would happen if they were the one to finally catch the hummingbird.

Not even a minute after the hummingbird landed, it was flying around again, this time, moving past the fans and flying at the wall where the power point presentation was being displayed. At this, the kids laughed as it attacked the numbers on the giant poster of the periodic table of elements that was pasted onto the classroom wall. The noise must have disturbed it because it darted back to its usual spot. Again, the entire class sighed and groaned and called the tiny bird all sorts of degrading names.

Even though Hitomi knew the bird didn't understand what was being said, she couldn't help but feel sorry for it. It was trying its best to find a way out. It was obviously starving. It kept attacking nooks and crannies in hopes of finding something eatable. It was exhausting itself. Using all of its energy, but to no avail. It made additional rounds about the classroom, flying into a plastic plant in its search for food, landing on top of counters for a rest, poking its tiny head at the models of molecules hanging from the ceiling. Occasionally, it would rest on a cabinet top, just high enough to escape a person's reach. Once, it perched on the metal wire that suspended the lights in the classroom. The entire class "ooohhhhed" and "awwwwed" as the hummingbird flew ever closer to people's heads. Merle squealed and ducked her head as the tiny bird flew directly overhead to attack the arrangement of plastic flowers on the teacher's desk.

After a while, the hummingbird which managed to capture the rapt attention of the entire class, including the teacher, flew back up into the ceiling, away from everyone's reach, and resumed in flying its tiny circles. Everyone sighed in disappointment and Ms. Williams went back to her lesson.

Again, Hitomi zoned out and her eyes landed on the picture of her brother's smiling face.

_'Next period, I'm going to the computer lab, so, I can check my e-mail. Maybe I'll get a message.'_

Once again, the butterflies started hatching inside her stomach. She put her arms in her lap and bent over slightly, trying to relive the irritating sensation. She tried desperately to bring her mind back to reality.

_'Stop it Hitomi! He's had plenty of time to answer back. If he hasn't written by now, he won't at all. So stop filling yourself with false hope. You're only going to hurt yourself later.'_

A familiar group gasp was heard. Once again, the hummingbird was daring to fly closer to the rest of the class.

_'It would take a miracle…'_

The hummingbird perched on top of the light that was suspended above and in front of Hitomi's head.

_'The odds of Mamorou contacting me are just about the same as _me_ catching that hummingbird.'_

In a flash, the tiny bird darted away, as if it were going to return to its usual perch, but then doubled back and flew strait at Hitomi. She saw the bird's movement and gasped, bring her hands up in the air. Suddenly, everything stopped.

Her hand was held out only inches from her face and the hummingbird was hovering in the palm of her hand. She looked at it and it looked back at her. There wasn't anything else in the universe except for Hitomi and that little bird. Everything else, the classroom, the teacher, the students, all faded away in a hazy backdrop. She felt like she was underwater. All she saw was the bird. Its body seemed to sit in her hand, the soft hum of its wings, so quiet, so gentle. The soft breath of wind she could feel in her hand, like a whisper. The moment seemed to last for an eternity. Its beating wings were nothing more than a transparent blurs, a small shadow. Its body shimmered with phosphorescence light. Its velvet green cape blended into its reddish brown breast. The thought of catching the bird and fulfilling the fantasy she had been having for the past several minutes was now completely erased from her mind. She simply gazed at the bird in awe.

Then, as if to snap Hitomi out of her trance, the hummingbird darted even closer to her, now only centimeters from her face. Still, she could only stare in awe. She couldn't catch it. It was too beautiful. The moment was too precious. Besides, even if she had tried, she might break the little thing. It was such a small thing. Just barely the size of her thumb. But it was almost sitting in the palm of her hand! Only a few centimeters separated her hand from the tiny hovering bird. Hitomi just sat there, oblivious to the whole world, just her and the little hummingbird…

…it was impossible…

…what were the odds…?

The moment was over. The bird flew away and the classroom slowly came back into focus. Hitomi wasn't underwater anymore. She looked around and saw that all eyes were on her and she was beaming.

The only response she could come up with was, "That was so cool!"

It was pathetic, but the entire experience was beyond words. She couldn't find any words to describe…

"Was that thing sitting in your hand?"

"What did it feel like?"

"Why didn't you catch it?"

"Wow that was so close."

Questions and comments flooded the room, and not all of them were directed to her. Mostly, the students were talking among themselves. But Hitomi didn't mind. Even though the experience was over, the emotions that came with it were still pulsing through her. Her eyes met Dryden's, who was turned around in his seat to look at Hitomi.

"There's the lucky one."

Hitomi smiled even more.

Hitomi didn't know who said it, but a single comment seemed to float and dominate all others as it came to reside in her hear.

"That was a miracle."

Hitomi shot a double take, trying to pinpoint where the comment had come from, but she couldn't make eye contact.

After only a few minutes, everyone was once again, watching as the little hummingbird tried to escape its prison. Hitomi wasn't paying attention to the little bird anymore.

Was it a miracle? Did she just witness a miracle? Didn't she just say that the odds of her brother contacting her were the same as her catching the humming bird?

True, she didn't catch the hummingbird, but she could have if she had wanted to! But that wasn't the point, was it?

No, it couldn't have been just a coincidence. It was fate. Miracles do happen! She knew it. This experience was not just a random occurrence. It was meant to be. That little hummingbird, that creature of such seemingly insignificance, had just become her beacon of hope.

So what if it's been two weeks. Hitomi could wait. She'd wait forever. After all, that's what you do when you love someone, right? You'd wait forever for them.

Hitomi glanced up at her beacon of hope, sitting on the high windowsill.

_'Please, tell Mamorou I'll wait forever for him. Tell him I love him and I hope he's well. That's all I want.'_

Suddenly, the beacon zoomed up and around in circles again, flying lower and lower until it spotted a window. It flew directly at it, right above Hitomi's head. It crashed into the window, cracking it. Hitomi turned around in her seat when she heard the wings of the bird beat against the glass furiously as it tried to escape, not realizing that all it had to do was fly down and out to freedom.

Van leapt up on top of the counter, his binder in his hand. Lining the binder up with the window, trapping the hummingbird, Van pushed the panicking little creature down and out the window, and it flew towards freedom.

When it was finished, Van jumped back down to the floor and took his seat. The entire class was clapping for him, including Hitomi. Everyone was smiling. Hitomi was almost positive that the smiles were only out of courtesy and that they all wished that they were the ones to play hero and save the bird.

Even Ms. Williams congratulated Van on his accomplishment. "Thank you so much Van, now, we can get back to our lesson!"

Everyone in the class groaned.

Hitomi turned in her chair and stared out the window where her little miracle had flown to freedom.

_'Everything will be just fine!'_

Hitomi's hope was restored. That was the hummingbird's mission.

_Van_ may have played the _hero_, but _she_ experienced the _miracle_.

_…the end…_

AN: Everything about this story is true! Actually, it happened to me a few weeks ago. I actually wrote this fic three days after the incident, but I just hadn't gotten around to posting it online. I thought this little incident would make an interesting story huh? I sure hope you all enjoyed it. Please REVIEW and tell me what you think. If you have any questions, leave your e-mail address, and I'll answer them. Or, you can e-mail me directly at **Yugismpuzzleyahoo.com** Now, REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!!!!!


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